March 2008 Industry News

FINAL 2007 YEAR-END SHIPMENT SUMMARY

Total fresh shipments for the year ending December 2007, set a new record high as measured by Council assessment payment records. In addition, 2007 shipments exceeded 2006 shipments by just over 2%. Is this a good performance? What if anything does it say about the Council’s restored promotional efforts? The Council recently hired Dr. Richard Sexton and his team from the University of California Davis to help sort this out as part of planning for 2009, to begin in late May.
Fresh imports were up nearly 28% in December to finish the year up nearly 12% year to date vs. the same period last year. Seven ports explain nearly 97% of the imports with two in Washington State, three bordering Ontario, Los Angeles and Loredo, Texas. The following is a summary of shipments through these ports listing their dominant source. Please note we have confirmed that the data the Council receives is unadulterated source data directly from Customs and Border Protection.

		% Share
% Change 2007 vs 2006		2007	2006

57.17%	Mexico	5.11%	4.02%	Loredo,TX Los Angeles, CA
22.66%	Asia	16.46%	11.39%

-1.93%	British Columbia	47.25%	60.42%
34.55%	Ontario	29.25%	21.05%	BC = Blaine + Sumas, WA
	Total share	98.08%	96.87%	Ontario = Alexander Bay + Buffalo/Niagara + Detroit

Domestic shipments increased a modest .5% in December 2007 vs. December 2006. Year to date reported domestic shipments finished the 2007 year up just over 1% vs. calendar year 2006; second only to the 2004 peak. Current Charts

COUNCIL UPDATE

As a reminder, a call for nominations has been issued for terms running from January 1, 2009 – December 31, 2011 for Regions 1, 2 and 5. If you produce over 500,000 pounds on average annually and would like another copy of the nomination form please contact the Council office. Note that we have yet to receive ANY nominations for Region 1.
Believe it or not, planning for 2009 will begin with the Council’s next meeting scheduled for May 29-30 in Chicago. Any producer is welcome to attend and/or contact your regional representative to offer your point of view. One thing we need to consider is how much do you think supply will grow over the next 18 months? If more mushrooms are destined for the marketplace, then more marketing needs to be put in place.
We have received the updated Culinary Workshop CD’s. Included on these CD’s is: Fresh Mushrooms, A culinary Workshop, Instructor’s Handbook, Student Handbook, Virtual Farm Tour, Umami White Paper and some mushroom recipes scaled for foodservice operators. Please contact Cheryl if you are interested in these CD’s.
Are you ready for Cinco de Mayo? The summer grilling promo season? While there has been much talk about the Weight Watchers “pick of the season” promotion program and the recipes associated with that push from July-September, don’t forget the Council will be pushing publicity and offering recipes for May and June as well. Indeed last December we sent you all the sell sheet and recipes for this time period. To refresh your memory and take advantage of these valuable materials click here.
A report by Willard Bishop entitled Store Differentiation with Mushrooms has been posted to the website. The report shows how “Attaining Higher Level Relationships Can Help Secure Grower-Shipper Status, and ideally, Enhance Overall Relevance”. “The key benefits to developing higher-level relationships at retail include: enhanced category relevance, sales and profit growth, reduced price pressure, and the creation of a true “partnership”.” To see this report, click here.
The QTR 1 - 2008 Consumer E-Newsletter is now available. This newsletter features three recipes: Mushroom, Edamame and Salmon Penne, Mushroom Veggie Frittata and Super Veggie Mushroom Pasta. To see this newsletter, click here. Please feel free to pass this newsletter along to others.
The QTR 1 - 2008 Foodservice Newsletter is now available. This newsletter has features such as Mushrooms & Vitamin D, Weight Watchers partnership, building a “U-Bomb” and more. To see the newsletter, click here. Please feel free to pass this newsletter along to others.

MARKETING SUMMARY

Mushroom Council placements for the last week of February represented 50 percent of total mushroom news, which is within the norm of 33 to 75 percent during a period of proactive outreach. Average penetration for the month was 31 percent, slightly below the norm since the first two weeks involved reactive outreach only. Power Period One media coverage has totaled 112 million impressions to date; the goal is 150 million. Vitamin D coverage represents 18 million or approximately 16 percent of Mushroom Council coverage to date. With more than a full month left of outreach, we are on track to meet the goal and will remain focused on raising the vitamin D percentage.

Highlights include:

10 vitamin D placements, including New York Daily News, Miami Herald and Danville Commercial-News
Vitamin D audio news release and radio media tour with Sylvia Klinger garnered more than 11 million impressions with 19 interviews and more than 850 broadcasts of the audio news release; goal was 6-8 million impressions with 10-13 interviews
Hispanic vitamin D outreach has reached more than 650,000 impressions with 70 placements, most of these placements are a reprint of the Hispanic press release in online and smaller publications, such as Dominican Times, Espanol News Yahoo and UnBuenDoctor

Additionally, Bob Greene listed mushrooms as number three in his eight superfoods list in the Best Life e-newsletter. The team had a conversation with Bob Greene’s nutritionist and we expect to see vitamin D coverage promoted to Best Life members in the near future.

Interestingly, there was quite a bit of Mushroom Council coverage from former media pushes. Four of the mushroom mac ‘n’ cheese recipes were covered twice on FruitandVeggieGuru.com, one on myani.com, along with the “Mushroom primavera with spaghetti squash” in The Huntsville Times. And, our former spokesperson, Tom Colicchio of Bravo TV’s “Top Chef,” talked about mushrooms as one of his favorite things to cook on a Nightline interview, which then was written about in New York Magazine.

Again, while conducting proactive media outreach, we generally expect Mushroom Council coverage to represent between 33-75 percent of mushroom placements, according to average consumer product and commodity industry standards. Note that there are always external factors or industry forces that could change that metric.

Week Ending	Mushroom Council Generated Placements	% of Total Mushroom Coverage	Type of Outreach
February 1	6	27 percent	Reactive
February 8	9	21 percent	Reactive
February 15	8	22 percent	Proactive
February 22	24	62 percent	Proactive
February 29	28	50 percent*	Proactive
Total	59	31 percent

* Includes radio coverage

Creative development of retail, in-store “shelf-talk” print ads focusing on the Weight Watchers summertime “pick of the season” partnership commenced in February. In March, the plan is to finalize various concepts for consumer copy testing in order to maximize appeal and sales lift.
You should have received your Weight Watcher’s style guide by now. If not please contact Cheryl. Note we shall be issuing a press release to the trade and retailers by the end of this month announcing this promotional event and encouraging retailers to contact you, their suppliers for more information about how to participate.
Weight Watchers recipe cards can still be ordered; April 1st is the deadline. The cost per 1000 cards is $39.50 plus shipping. The brochures will feature four mushroom recipes: Mini Mushroom Burgers, Mushroom Chicken Piccata, Tilapia with Mushrooms, Olives and Tomatoes and Turkey Mushroom Soup and each recipe will be pictured alongside nutrition information and POINTS values per serving. You can share them at point of sale, during special events (think National Mushroom Month), through mailings or just about any creative way as long as it falls within the sponsorship period which runs from July through September 2008. You should have received a mailing with the recipe card mock-up, if not, click here to see it.
On the foodservice promotion front the Council finally has a meeting with Applebee’s to discuss potential Weight Watchers tie-in during the summer “pick of the season” promotion to extend the reach an impact of this exciting national partnership. For more on the status of Council promotional pursuit click here. To see new mushroom menu items for February click here.
As reported last month, if you were not able to join us for the February 12th Webcast you can see the latest Flash Report that was presented by clicking on the flowing link: http://presentation.edelman.com/rme/ekits/mushroom_council_2007/index.html.
Supermarket sales reports from IRI scanner data are created each month and following each quarter and are posted online via the COGNOS online reporting system. If you do not have your access code and password yet, or forgot the one issued to you, please contact Cheryl to retrieve. As reported last month, 2007 finished strong and the final year-end report is online. January also has 2008 off to a good start at least in supermarkets doing over $2 million per year, with pounds up 1.2%, units up nearly 2% and dollars up over 4%. A much stronger start than in 2007, when January pounds were off 2% vs. January 2006. For more retail sales data, see the Cognos online reporting system or contact the Council office for more information. Click here to see some sample data included on the Cognos website from the most recent quarterly report.